Last-minute bolts by participating groups and the failure of German official representatives to send greetings hit the German Day celebration of the United German Societies at the Madison Square Garden last night, in which the pro-Nazi German-American Bund had been refused participation, and emphasized the growing split among Germans in the United States on the question of Nazism.
The German-American Commercial League backed out of the celebration, in which it had agreed to take a leading part, together with 150 persons who were to have acted historical tableaux. other participants followed suit. speakers at the celebration denounced these actions, Theodore Hoffman, president of the Steuben Society, warning that foreign politics on our shores “can have no other result than to create a feeling of hostility against those who exhibit it and the country which they claim to represent.”
no representative of the german government appeared at the rally, and not even the usual message was sent. however, it was decided to send greetings to berlin, expressing satisfaction with the position of Germany under Hitler and with the acquisition of Austria and Sudetenland.
Meanwhile, the Bund staged several of its own celebrations. In Union City, N.J., Bundesfehrer fritz Kuhn was obliged to cancel a scheduled address when a crowd of 5,000 persons led by war veterans demonstrated in front of the hall where the meeting was to have been held. Kuhn addressed meetings in new York, Brooklyn and Andover, N.J.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
